tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post2052481798019244472..comments2017-09-22T22:52:48.727-07:00Comments on TOM CLARK: Access and Closure: Mahmoud Darwish: O those who pass between fleeting wordsZephirinenoreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-40673826275533210382011-04-18T08:56:05.388-07:002011-04-18T08:56:05.388-07:00Elmo,
I do hear and understand you, my friend...Elmo,<br /><br /> I do hear and understand you, my friend.<br /><br /> A nation of nothing but Elmos would be a true liberal democracy indeed, that vision of a shining city on a hill.<br /><br /> As you mention the prior native inhabitants of these lands: coincidentally the brave Angelica lately dragged me in a halting wobble up to one of her favourite local haunts (well, it&#39;s probably the only one), Indian Rock, a promontory so-called because the aboriginal inhabitants of this area, the Ohlone people, used the nooks and crannies in its pockmarked surface as grinding-holes to crush acorns down into the mash which then, along with the abundant local fish and game, provided them a generous sustenance.<br /><br /> Of course all that&#39;s left of those inhabitants now is the name of the rock.<br /><br /> And once having, with great trepidation, followed my surprisingly robust spouse in scaling up to the top (pride and folly providing what strength and energy could not), I saw the entire broad scape of these cities by the Bay laid out before us -- an ugly spill of grey concrete upon the land, the sky charged with a white toxic haze of pollution (some of it generated by the copious automotive and industrial emanations here, some of it drifting all this way from the power plants of an &quot;emerging&quot; -- ? -- China).<br /><br /> Poverty, inequality, blight and violence flourish under the cover of that general ambient haze.<br /><br /> And the thought struck me, everything that&#39;s happened since this piece of earth was stolen from the Indians has been for the worse.<br /><br /> (The one major racetrack visible from that vantage, Golden Gate Fields, is not an Indian reparations casino, at least. Alcohol and Gambling and Diabetes, the troika of benefits afforded the natives by the original Bad Santa... wasn&#39;t that all just rubbing it in?)<br /><br /> And before departing the subject of liberal democracies, it would seem at this point a bit optimistic to suggest we still have one, or will still have one tomorrow... once I finally got the patched-together earphones plugged into my tiny Walkman for the evening CBS radio news, I caught the trailing edge of an interview with a Republican congressman, blustering confidently about killing off Medicare... in order to, if I got this right, save the nation -- from, I guess, old unemployed codgers like yours truly who are kept among the living solely by massive daily cocktails of life-support blood pressure medications, partial payment for which already eats up a large chunk of our micro-SS checks as it is; getting rid of Medicare would indeed kill two birds with one stone, the last shred of mercy in the public sector, and the old people.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-52027260823431368192011-04-17T16:45:56.236-07:002011-04-17T16:45:56.236-07:00&quot;the country I come from is
called the mid w...&quot;the country I come from is<br /> called the mid west<br /><br /> the calvary charged and the<br /> Indians fell<br /> the calvary charged and the<br /> Indians died<br /> but the country was young then<br /> and had God on its side&quot;<br /> Bob Dylan<br /><br />That was a beautiful post on<br />Kafka where you elucidate some<br />family history...or immigrant<br />nature of it fleeing oppression.<br />And ending up in America.<br /><br />America &quot;the shining city on the<br />hill&quot;, the Statue of Liberty &quot;The<br />New Collusus&quot; Emma Lazarus wrote.<br />Falling short as you so well<br />describe many times on your blog<br />but still mankind&#39;s last best hope<br />of government &quot;for the people by<br />the people of the people&quot; as Lincoln said.<br /><br />That said I don&#39;t think the people<br />in Chicago, New York or Berkeley<br />are going to give their land back<br />to the Indians.<br /><br />The Blair idea is that the prosperity of liberal democracy<br />in an environment devoid of daily<br />and purposeful violence could<br />effect the abilities of reason<br />in the area. Poverty can be a <br />terrible blight to the spirit.Elmo St. Rosehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01588245143022651357noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-51010432897271093812011-04-17T06:36:17.196-07:002011-04-17T06:36:17.196-07:00What am I saying? Confusing Moneyball, which is, l...What am I saying? Confusing Moneyball, which is, like its name, basically no fun, with Billyball, which was, like the fellow after whom it was named, Berkeley&#39;s own Billy Martin, a lot of fun indeed.<br /><br />(Unless, that is, you were one of those starting pitchers who, in 1981, were left in to complete every game, come hell or high water, and each of whom threw more innings in one season than Don Trump has dollars, nearly -- or, for that matter, than the human arm can safely endure. But then who can speak of recklessness in the context of a manager who ended his career as a human by driving a truck off a cliff, true to the spirit by which he had lived.)TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-48384615727871495072011-04-17T06:01:36.865-07:002011-04-17T06:01:36.865-07:00Also, Darwish would definitely not have allowed hi...Also, Darwish would definitely not have allowed himself to prostrate himself before the ridiculous ideology (or idiotology) of a general manager whose one salient contribution to modern baseball is the systematic prevention of swinging at first pitches.<br /><br />(Wasn&#39;t there a sort of pseudo-religious system prevalent on the alternative fringes some time ago that involved delaying climax forever? Happily the senior-dementia vacuum cleaner has hoovered away its name... Kerista, possibly? Through the funky mists of time... Anyway, that would have been the sexual equivalent of Billyball: strike one, called; strike two called, &amp; c. ad infinitum.)TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-40620968006655168162011-04-17T05:40:08.761-07:002011-04-17T05:40:08.761-07:00Tom:
“If Darwish and not Bobo Geren had been mana...Tom:<br /><br />“If Darwish and not Bobo Geren had been managing Oakland…”<br /><br />Talk about yr paratax. That’s why we come here every day.kenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12448791356455016794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-46821090128706800292011-04-17T01:08:16.480-07:002011-04-17T01:08:16.480-07:00Kent,
Nice one.
Jackie Robinson played baseball,...Kent,<br /><br />Nice one.<br /><br />Jackie Robinson played baseball, football, life, America, everything, to the hilt -- though of course they&#39;re all infinite games in which there are no winners in the end, just the ongoing of the game. <br /><br />I once saw him challenge the great Sad Sam Jones by dancing so far off third base, Sam had to throw over, and of course Jackie streaked home and scored in a cloud of dust.<br /><br />This was &#39;55 or so, toward the end of his time, when the great athleticism was largely gone, and the force was largely that of an indomitable will. Which of course had been his great strength from the beginning. <br /><br />Only a fierce warrior could have overcome the things he overcame, to open the way for the brothers to come.<br /><br />Darwish would have understood that.<br /><br />If Darwish and not Bobo Geren had been managing Oakland (phantoms always, the Oakland managers), he would not have thrown out a lefthander to start the ninth against Cabrera; and if he&#39;d have been gambler enough to do so, he&#39;d have shown the hidden nous in the maneuver by walking him.<br /><br />Bobos never learn, they always fall asleep on their feet before the information is processed.<br /><br />I saw quite a bit of Sal the Barber in my ushering days at Wrigley, too. The hangdog scowl and the three-day stubble seemed glued on. Once, working behind the visiting dugout, I watched him give a drunk, abusive Cubs fan the dirtiest look I have ever seen one human being give anoter.<br /><br />Of course he showed that same look to every hitter who stepped in, uncomfortably, against him.<br /><br />There was nothing so wonderful in those days as seeing a visiting pitcher who is removed from the game look straight in the eyes of a verbal assailant, and return the dislike. That happened quite a bit back then, never now.<br /><br />The meanest pitcher I believe I ever saw was Early Wynn. When he was pitching for the Indians one sultry summer night at Comiskey, after being rather unkindly roughed up, and yanked, he stalked from the mound in an obviously nasty frame of mind, swearing and growling; when a fan behind the Cleveland dugout mouthed off, Early paused, glanced that way, and gave the guy the finger. Straight up. Occam&#39;s Razor.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-38168042708365879412011-04-17T01:06:36.058-07:002011-04-17T01:06:36.058-07:00Elmo,
I don&#39;t think they&#39;re out to get me...Elmo,<br /><br />I don&#39;t think they&#39;re out to get me, in fact I think they have issues of their own.<br /><br />I have a friend whose father (whom I have met) attended Darwish&#39;s funeral, the event pictured in that second Marcel Khalifa link.<br /><br />My friend&#39;s father came to America, started a small food business, earned a life for his family, taught his son the food business, and the son now runs the cleanest, coolest, most welcoming coffee shop in a town that has no dearth of coffee shops.<br /><br /><a href="http://tomclarkblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/meditation-outside-fertile-grounds-cafe.html" rel="nofollow">This is the place</a>.<br /><br />The family comes from a hill village in the West Bank that is divided down the middle by a separation fence, separating farmers from their fields, family members from each other.<br /><br />These are peaceful people.<br /><br />Our distance from these things gives us the luxury of prejudicial judgment. What&#39;s the old saw, Distance lends enchantment to the view?<br /><br />I am sorry to say I have a hard time imagining the utopian possibility of two sides with equal claims to the land getting together amicably to divvy up the tourist revenue.<br /><br />The claims are not equal, all the rules of the game are being made up on the de facto power-holding side of the fences and walls which they have built and continue to build with the military and political force America has provided them.<br /><br />This is, I believe, a matter of an oppressive brutal invading power dispossessing another people, stealing their land; and in the end, once justice finally prevails, this Occupation will go down as a dark stain upon history. <br /><br />Elmo, you are a good man with a kind and generous heart, so I&#39;m sure you must be able to recognize that a small sliver of land can be as big as all God&#39;s creation, if it&#39;s yours and someone has taken it away from you.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-91284903678559029942011-04-16T15:44:50.576-07:002011-04-16T15:44:50.576-07:00Tony Blair has sought to bridge
the divide.
He po...Tony Blair has sought to bridge<br />the divide.<br /><br />He points out that the holy sites<br />of 3 major religions exist in a<br />small geographical area,some in<br />the West Bank and Gaza...<br /><br />With peace and modern attitudes<br />of reasonable tolerance the wealth<br />from the tourism could be spread<br />around...Gaza after all could be<br />a Riviera<br /><br />the GNP of the non natural resource<br />Israeli economy could spread to<br />the Arab nations.<br /><br />The fight is over a sliver of the<br />globe...Darwish&#39;s poetry does not<br />account for some of the imam driven<br />nightmares that are planned for a<br />large portion of the earth&#39;s population...to wit, who, who is not<br />Muslim is safe in a Muslim land<br /><br />The old phrase...just because you&#39;re paranoid doesn&#39;t mean they&#39;re not out to get youElmo St. Rosehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01588245143022651357noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-73784638636211350872011-04-16T08:59:58.558-07:002011-04-16T08:59:58.558-07:00JACKIE NIGHT IN THE WEST BANK
Top of nine
Like Le...JACKIE NIGHT IN THE WEST BANK<br /><br />Top of nine<br />Like Leo before him<br />O-Bam’ sends up <br />A bomb of his own<br /><br />Mighty Miggy<br />All-Fury Like Jack’s <br />Twin-Star Newk<br />Clears the fences<br /><br />In all senses<br />Sends the razors<br />To Sal Maglie’s<br />Place in Heaven<br /><br />Where only he<br />And God<br />Know how<br />To use them.kenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12448791356455016794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-59783173037931319752011-04-16T07:14:42.878-07:002011-04-16T07:14:42.878-07:00Kent,
To descend from the sublime...
I understan...Kent,<br /><br />To descend from the sublime...<br /><br />I understand MC now has a minder. Still large, but not drunk and went yard late off Fuentes. (The heavy night air of the dead zone just a tad lighter than usual for this time of year.)<br /><br />(In the same breath with Darwish, the paratax of infidels.)TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-30920480296283566322011-04-16T07:03:22.275-07:002011-04-16T07:03:22.275-07:00Simon,
I wanted to post the original in Arabic, b...Simon,<br /><br />I wanted to post the original in Arabic, but some treasures defy searches.<br /><br />There are a number of immensely moving videos of Darwish songs being performed; here are two performances by the great Marcel Khalifa.<br /><br />Both reflect something of the meaning of Darwish and his work to the Palestinian people, and to us as well.<br /><br />An English version of the text of this first one appeared here earlier -- see link above.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CneRR_RQsNU&amp;feature=related" rel="nofollow">Marcel Khalifa: Rita and the Rifle by Mahmoud Darwish</a><br /><br />This second is a posthumous tribute.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6fj0a_marcel-khalife-rend-hommage-a-darwi_news" rel="nofollow">Marcel Khalifa pays homage to Mahmoud Darwish</a>TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-28002776376253111742011-04-16T03:44:38.752-07:002011-04-16T03:44:38.752-07:00Thanks for this one, Tom. It has strengthened my d...Thanks for this one, Tom. It has strengthened my determination to learn enough Arabic to read the original.Simon M Hunterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06879703456056313280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-38275089680525031932011-04-16T02:15:16.694-07:002011-04-16T02:15:16.694-07:00Waking to results
late start vs A&#39;s
JR-42 nig...Waking to results<br />late start vs A&#39;s <br />JR-42 night,<br /><br />Nearby sage TC reminds <br />not even sober&#39;d Miggy<br />can clear those fences.kenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12448791356455016794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-55549907722501790502011-04-15T22:56:09.309-07:002011-04-15T22:56:09.309-07:00Thanks Vincent for getting the point of the segue....Thanks Vincent for getting the point of the segue. There is no better relief for that lonely feeling than to know you&#39;re not alone in it. <br /><br />The prize in the crackerjack box will probably be more and worse of the same, but still. Just saying.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-23331713899601324412011-04-15T20:11:35.524-07:002011-04-15T20:11:35.524-07:00a poem of dizzying beauty even aside from the poli...a poem of dizzying beauty even aside from the politics. the occupation of palestine is the mountaintop removal of international relations. thanks tom for showing us thisVINCENT FARNSWORTHhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09840705566779483677noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-1055578194814702962011-04-15T09:47:12.870-07:002011-04-15T09:47:12.870-07:00Also by this poet:
Darwish: I&#39;m from There
D...Also by this poet:<br /><br /><a href="http://tomclarkblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/darwish-im-from-there.html" rel="nofollow">Darwish: I&#39;m from There</a><br /><br /><a href="http://tomclarkblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/mahmoud-darwish-rita-and-rifle.html" rel="nofollow">Darwish: Rita and the Rifle</a><br /><br />And please see: <br /><br /><a href="http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/0/acac20ae02eeb219852575ed00495d39?OpenDocument" rel="nofollow">West Bank: Access and Closure: map by UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, June 2009</a>TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.com